How Serious is an Impacted Tooth?
A quite common problem with which patients report to the dentist is an impacted tooth. As the name suggests, it is a tooth that has not fully developed for various reasons. Such an impacted tooth can cause many serious consequences and complications in the oral cavity, and in extreme cases, can prove fatal.
How an impacted tooth is formed – causes
Most often, tooth growth stops due to limited space in the dental arch, which prevents the tooth from fully developing. This usually happens because the baby tooth falls out too late. This blocks the development of the permanent tooth and the remaining teeth are arranged too tightly together. Therefore, it should be emphasized that it is extremely important to visit the dentist regularly, even if we do not have permanent teeth yet. For many years, there was an unfair belief that there was no point in treating baby teeth because they would eventually fall out. This kind of thinking can cause big problems in the oral cavity. However, regular check-ups at the dentist can prevent, for example, a milk tooth from blocking the growth of a permanent tooth.
What are the consequences of an impacted tooth?
An impacted tooth can cause various complications in the oral cavity. It largely depends on where the tooth stopped. We will often quickly notice the missing teeth one or two and go to the dentist. However, the situation is different with molars and premolars - where we usually see any cavities quite late. Unerupted molars or wisdom teeth can cause a number of ailments, such as inflammation around an impacted tooth, periodontal disease, trismus, caries in an unerupted tooth or malocclusion. Pain is also often caused by tooth pressure on the nerve located in the jaw. Sometimes you also feel pain when opening your mouth. When we start to suffer from pain, we quickly go to the dentist. Unfortunately, an impacted tooth by this time can already wreak considerable havoc in the oral cavity without causing any obvious symptoms.
How to treat an impacted tooth?
If we notice a missing tooth in the arch, we start to feel disturbing symptoms - we should go to the dentist as soon as possible. After the initial examination, the doctor will probably use an X-ray to show whether the tooth is actually impacted. Typically, such an impacted tooth must be surgically removed . This is a common procedure performed by a dental surgeon, but it can still be quite complicated if the tooth has an unusual position. Relatively most often, wisdom teeth are retained in the dental arch. In the case of the upper teeth, it is generally a bit easier because they are easier to access and the teeth are less likely to be completely embedded in the bone. The matter becomes more complicated in the case of the lower teeth, if they remain in the bone and do not erupt onto the gum surface. Then the dental surgeon must cut the gum to get to the bone where the tooth is hidden. Then, using a professional drill, he chisels the tooth to remove it.
Sometimes, instead of removing an impacted tooth, the tooth is extracted. This applies primarily to the front teeth. It is recommended to start orthodontic treatment as early as possible to remove the impacted tooth. It must be taken into account that this is a long-term process and may take up to two years.
Preventing complications
As with virtually all oral diseases, the best method of treating an impacted tooth is prevention. Regular visits to the dentist, inspection of teeth and bite, and, if necessary, X-rays - all this can protect against a complicated procedure. The dentist will detect irregularities in time and will either recommend appropriate treatment or remove the impacted tooth before it can cause serious complications.